Apple is planning a big design change for its next iPhone that could include removing the home button, analyst says

Apple is planning to change the design of its next iPhone, and
there's a chance it may even remove the physical home button
we've all grown used to, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster wrote in a
recent note
picked up by Barron's.

The idea that Apple could change the design of its next iPhone,
which will presumably be called the iPhone 7, isn't surprising.

Apple typically revamps the way its iPhones look and feel every
other year. But what's interesting about Munster's predictions is
that he notes there's a "50% chance" the iPhone 7 won't have a
physical home button.

"As many have speculated, the addition of 3D Touch may provide
Apple with a way to eliminate the home button on the phone and
use the additional space to make the screen bigger or make the
device smaller," Munster writes.

Munster has a point. Some Android device makers are able to
add larger screens to their phones without actually increasing
the physical size of the device by making the bezels — the
borders around a device's screen — smaller.

Eliminating the home button would allow Apple to cut out part of
the bezels to make the iPhone's screen larger while keeping the
design relatively small and thin.

But there's a big reason why it seems unlikely that Apple will
cut out the home button anytime soon: TouchID. Apple's
fingerprint reader, used to unlock the iPhone and authenticate
purchases with Apple Pay, currently resides in the home button.
Munster also noted this and suggested that Apple could move the
TouchID sensor to the side of the phone.

Apple has also
filed a patent application that describes a system in which a
fingerprint sensor could be embedded in the screen itself. That
doesn't necessarily mean this tech will appear in Apple's future
products, but it just shows the company has at least considered
it.

This isn't the first time we've heard rumors about Apple
getting rid of the iPhone's home button. DigiTimes, a
Taiwan-based publication with a shaky track record when it comes
to reporting on upcoming products, reported in
June that Apple is making an iPhone with a home button built
into the iPhone's screen.

Apple Insider
reported the same, citing its own sources, but also said that
an iPhone without a home button wouldn't launch before 2017.